Great Expectations Dating Service seriously misrepresent the service they don't offer and prey on lonely people ripoff Vienna Virginia
Oh, they were so enthusiastic about their service and spoke over and over again of the statistics of their success cases. It is all deception. The men available in the 45-55 age range were mostly horrible and there were far too few to choose from in general. THEN the stupid guys never responded to my selecting them. They weren't even decent enough to respond with a polite rejection. I got one "not my type" response from about 10 men that I contacted by mail, through the company.
Then, what makes matters even worse is that I thought that I had paid for my membership (one year at almost $3,000)all at once and I had $90 in bounced check fees at my bank this month due to the direct withdrawl of $19 in dues that I knew nothing about!! I know that I should have read the contract more carefully, but the a*s, Harrison, who sold me the membership, talked my head off for about an hour and I was exhausted and he made it easy to assume he covered everything. I mean, my God, we talked about the costs and the ways to pay, whether to finance or not.
I decided to pay what I thought was the overall price at once and NOW they want me to pay $19.00 per month to have NOTHING happening!!!!!!! If he'd mentioned the $19.00 per month dues, I wouldn't have joined!! It is just plain insulting to ask for $3,000 and then expect us to pay an additional $19 per month AND FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! I'm calling my lawyer on Monday and I've only been a member for less than 3 months !!!!!!!!!!
Brenta
Germantown, Maryland
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Anonn
Smewhere,Texas,
U.S.A.
I'm so sorry for your trouble!!!
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Tue, January 07, 2003
Your case is TYPICAL of 80% of members in dating services.
When I started working for a particular dating service, I thought I was going to help people find self-esteem, increase their socializing, or maybe even find their soul-mates!! Then after a couple weeks of extensive sales training, and another month's worth of "conducting interviews", I realized it was nothing more than a giant "cattle-call" of ignorant people. The main goal was not to fill a filing cabinet with eligible people seeking real committments, it was to CHARGE THEIR CREDIT CARDS TO THE MAX!!!! I heard one telemarketer cracking up his co-workers one day with the statement "I'm gonna suck them dry!" I watched another sales person GLOAT to his counterparts during a slow point of the day as to just how much commission he'd earned on just two sales that day. Between his commission percentage rate and the price he charged his two "great members", he was going to take home over $2000. FOR JUST 4 hours of work!
There are some things you need to know about your legal case if you do pursue an attorney. Your main legal standing is that they did not provide a service they pitched to you, therefore you want your money back. Have your attorney look this up: In 1997 in Oklahoma City, OK, TOGETHER DATING SERVICE was sued by a member. TOGETHER fought for over a YEAR not to have the case go to court!! They knew that if their company was dragged in, they'd lose. So they battled, and fought, refused subpoenas and contact by phone, etc....hoping the plantiff would get exhausted and just quit. Well, luckily, he didn't, and when his case was heard by the judge, the judge stated that the "three-day waiting period" for refunds was ILLEGAL, the language of the actual membership contract was ILLEGAL, and the entire service over-all was unprofessional and lacked basic business-law knowledge!!! And TOGETHER IS THE OLDEST DATING SERVICE OF THEM ALL NATION-WIDE!!! A HUGE WIN for anyone fighting a dating service. However, each individual member had to sue TOGETHER DATING, it wasn't like this judge just devastated the industry. And since the win wasn't publicized, and us employees were forced not to speak about it to anyone outside of the office, every member that had a problem back then would've had to fight with TOGETHER to receive the same compensation...and I'm sure you can figure out how many times THAT happened. NONE. Most people get extremely frustrated, and attorneys actually encourage their clients to give up. SO...have your attorney look this case up for precedent for YOUR case, and maybe things will go much faster for you!
Great Expectations will fight you from the perspective that they tried to match you countless times, that they can't promise true love to anyone, and you were matched with several members, regardless if the men responded to you. So in their eyes, "they did their job". Now...here's the catch. Did they REALLY???
Most women go into a dating service relatively open to what they will agree to be matched with. Most MEN, on the other hand, automatically expect to be matched with a Cindy Crawford or Heidi Klum. You were signed on with the agreement that you'd get what you wanted....the men were signed with the promise that they'd get what THEY wanted. Are you Cindy Crawford??? Are you Heidi Klum?? Were they just so-and-so, maybe something might happen, maybe not, but it's worth a try, kinda guys??? Technically, the turn-down was probably appropriate coming from the man. He expected something, he didn't get it, he used his right to forfeit. BUT, you can't be expected to take the loss as well! He wants his match to be much younger than him, THIN, no children, etc. Most men are not 'forgiving' in these areas AT ALL. I was APPALLED as a WOMAN to see such pigs enter our front doors expecting the impossible for themselves!!! Nonetheless, If you were asking for a non-smoker, maybe HALF the men you were matched with actually smoked, and the member relations people didn't care enough to notice that! Maybe you asked for the man to be in a certain wage earning percentile, and most of them weren't, but AGAIN it wasn't disclosed to you!!!! Many, if not ALL, of the "matches" you are provided with are NOT legite, in that the people conducting the match are more concerned with someone saying yes so it counts as a match, rather than if both parties are actually getting "what they ordered"! Have your attorney fight to have these men's profiles evaluated and compared to what you said you'd date. Also, try calling some of these men back, and describe your complaints to them. It's more than likely that they are having the same kind of problems, and you can rally with one another in a fight, using each other as witnesses to "BAD SERVICE"!!
Above all else, if you can't re-contact your previous matches, and the company refuses to release any profiles, calling it a breech of privacy, have your attorney put out a public ad asking for anyone who's unsatisfied with their dating service membership to call in. If a dating service brags that they have 7,000 members, I guarantee a minimum of 5,000 are 100% pissed-off customers, but don't know what else to do about it, and are too embarrassed to even admit they took part in a dating service!!! Figure out a way to get people like yourself to speak out so this SCUM will stop multiplying greedy, store-front, shady franchises in our country! GET YOUR $3,000 BACK!!! IT'S NOT IMPOSSIBLE! DON'T GIVE UP! RIGHT IS ON YOUR SIDE!!!!!